Wrong-Way Driver Kills 4 In I-80 Car Accident Near Hazel Crest

Blog Post by Barry G. Doyle

Even though the Bears weren’t playing, hundreds of thousands of Chicagoland residents tuned in to watch the Super Bowl on Sunday evening. Many of those people watched the big game at bars or private parties and also drank alcohol during the festivities. Unfortunately, alcohol consumption may have contributed to a horrendous early-morning I-80 car accident.

Around 2:15am Monday morning, a vehicle somehow wound up driving east in the westbound lanes of I-80 at a very high rate of speed for about three-quarters of a mile. Shortly thereafter, the vehicle slammed head-on into a five-door crossover vehicle near Kedzie Avenue less than a mile west of the Tri-State Tollway interchange near the Chicago suburb of Hazel Crest. The driver of the wrong-way vehicle was killed as were two of the passengers in his vehicle. Another passenger was transported to a hospital in fair condition. The driver of the five-door vehicle also died in the wreck.According to Illinois State Police, the occupants of the wrong-way vehicle were driving home from the bars, and alcohol appears to have played a part in the I-80 car accident. Authorities are questioning the surviving passenger in an effort to gain more details about the circumstances surrounding the crash. Everyone involved in the I-80 car accident were reportedly males in their 20s and 30s.Family members of the wrong-way driver must now deal with the double dose of heartache. Not only will they mourn the loss of their loved one, but they might see his estate be named in wrongful death lawsuits filed by the families of the three men who died in the I-80 car accident. (The passenger who was hospitalized could also file a personal injury lawsuit against the estate of that vehicle’s driver as well.) In addition to compensation for burial expenses, damages for emotional distress, and lost future wages; the wrongful death lawsuits might even ask for punitive damages if it is determined that the driver was indeed intoxicated at the time of the wrong-way I-80 car accident.